The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-03-24


tics brings up patriotism, as it is called and his |
moods change, and those early sensations at first ,
ire no longer operative upo, him; another pow
srful influence causes dig. ession. There are
many who have such ancillary elements I
brought to bear upon their wills and their tenn
peraments that they are almost persuaded to be /
and think they will be, bu5, going
home in hurry, fall in with cCmpany, /
and the day following business instincts
and interests 1t is like another scene that day. /
So that there is this changeableness IN men. |
Then the decrease OF the power came from the /
nature of the mind. There is, however, this idea
not to be neglected-the distinction between the /
mans willing and his wishing. great many
people think that wish is a resolution. Oh, it
has gone into proverb, IF wishes werte horses,
then beggars might ride" man wishes he
were rich, but he is lazy and he will be;
q man wishes that he knew more: probably never
will; he is lazy; man wishes that he could have |
into certain circles in society. but the
steps requisite he never will have patience or
wisdom to take. You might just well carry a
candle around the field and think it is agricul-
ture, because it is light shining on crops. Thous-
ands of people think they wish to be Christians;
they don't. That is the Interpretation given
much of the instruction of Jesus. Men came to
him and said: Lord, will follow thee whittier
soever thou goest." mo, you won't; you don't
know that am destined to suffering, poverty,
persecution, death; you think that am going to
be royal parsonage and shower honors and
gold" "Ah,n says one, Il will follow thee, but
suffer me first" All, there is that ''if and ''but
in life Ten thousand people say, Il would be a
Christian if" and that settles it. Il want to be
Christian, but"-yes, that settles it again. And
so Christ was surrounded by swarns of persons
following him around, wishing and wishing, with
various degrees of excitabilty in them, and he
put them all off; he would have nothing to do
with them. "Let him take up his cross and fol
low me- whosoever would be my disciple" There
is something to do, something to prove and to
wish There is a great distinction between wish
ing, then, and willing; for when man wills the
purpose carries with it the instrument to effect
itself. You wish to be a Christian; do you viii to
be one? Your wishing is tantalization if will be
accomplishment.
Now, Christian life is the only reasonable one,
whether you regard it as a duty or a means of
the greatest satisfaction that is to say, we were
made to be Christians, and being a Christian is
simply putting yourself in those relations to your
self, to your fellow men and to your God for
which you were created DID you ever undertake
to take apart watch? That is very easy. Did
you undertake to put it together again? That
is not so easy. You don't know which screw goes
in which hole; you don't know exactly which
wheel goes in first; but one thing is perfectly
tain and that is that nothing else will fit together
but that of which the watch was made, and each
wheel was destined to one place and to one avoca-
tion, and if you can bring them together, accord
ing to the intent Of the maker, it will perform,
and otherwise it will not. Now, a man was built
with great deal more care than ever a watch
was. He has definite relations to himself man
was made to live with men, and there is only one
way and one principle which men can live to-
gether-kindneSs, love. Justice means love;
justice is not something else; and we have test
an example, revelation in Jesus, in the Old Tes-
lament as well as in the New, but in the New with
clearer emphasis and larger light, seeing there
ha1-a
what are the interlacing relations and what is the
predominant spirit in which We are to treat them.
"Thou shalt love thy peghbor as thysef.m Self
love is made to BE- the very model and type of
that affection which you are to give to all people
Then we know perfectly well that we are affianced
to yet higher beings than man and to the in
visible cosmos as well as to the visible; and
we cannot live when we are out of joint with
any of these relations in ourselves and to our
neghbors and to our God. Now l say it is reas-
enable that we should endeavor to live after this
type upon which we were created. This is reas-
enable. great many men can but, to the weak,
Christianity is nothing but priestcraft and it is
not reasonable for man to be damned because
he could not gulp and swallow all the dogmas and
all the forms. But that is wide Of the mark
True Christianity means living in those relations
for which we were created-harmoniZation of
ourselves, harmoniZation of our relations to our
fellow men, harmoniZatSon of our relation to the
Invisible future, And I say that is reasonable;
say more than that, that it has in it the inherent
the greatest amount cf happiness. For although
for temporary reasons, man may defer to his
passions, taking the average AID the whole life
he loses rather than he is the loser now, but suf
fers then. A man may think, because he runs
through a dissipated period and then reforms
that the dissipation is all over. No, no, no; the
causes sink under and run SuhterraneouSly, as it
were; and there is many man that has grumbled
at 45 years of age from the misconduct of 20
years. You know that there are the seventeen
year locusts they lay their eggs. and those eggs
lie incubating in the ground for seventeen years.
then they hatch and come forth. A man may by
evil deeds lay the eggs that will hatch twenty
years after that, and a general truth think it
is demonstrable by actual observation and eX-
perience that the true happiness of a man
lies in that self control, in that virtue in
that integrity, in that love power which
is the substance of religion itself 1t is not learn
ing your catechism, it is not learning your
of faith, it is not going through ecclesiastical
achievements. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God and thy neighbor as thyself.'' Therefore
you must lift yourself, and he that lifts himself
shows, not by partialty toward the lower and
worst features in himself, but toward his whole
self-the regent understanding, the moral power
| and element and spiritual in him. Now, when a
man has this presented to him and he is urged to
| enter upon Christian life as the only honorable
one, the only that has the greatest satisfac-
GlOn IN IL, tl6 In IL the idea
of duty and gratitude toward God, how thought
| lessly men heed that. Tonight how many are
| there of you that say in thus looking over the
sphere of life-life to come: II am resolved what
| to do" Bearing in mind what resolution means
| and what it includes, how many men can say to-
night, HYes am resolved what to do There
very few of you that would say, Tam resolved
| not to be a Christian" That is very hazardous
| thing, which very few men care to resolve Men
may say, the other hand, Il hope some time
| to be Christian; feel sometimes if would
| like to be one; wish was one;" just as lazy
man wishes he had the products of industry. But
how many men are there here tonight that can
say, Il am resolved what to do, - II am resolved
what to do
Are you then resolved at once to become q
| Christian? Can be a Christian at once? In one
sense, no; in another sense, yes. Nobody ever
| learned trade at q blow, but he can begin this
| day; no man ever became a scholar by resolution
| but he never can become one without resolution:
| it is a complex one and a constantly repeating
one ancillary resolutions upholding the main one
Are you resolved to be a Christian TO this extent
II will begin tonight? II am resolved as far as
have light and as far as know my way. am
determined, God knows 1 ain determined to
square my life hereafter Christian principles
l am resolved to be Christian man" Now this
may include churches. l may be Roman Cath
olic and resolve it. Protestant and stay out OF
| that church, and stay out of any other church
I
| like to this scheme or that scheme according to
this church or that church, it simply means in its
simplest form, its primary condition, Il will reg
| ulate my life, both inside and out according to
the principles laid down for me by the Lord Jesus
Christ" Is not that a very simple thing? But
what does it carry with it, 1t carries in the first
place, this: II will therefore begin by excluding
everything that know will hinder this resou
ton; from consciously wicked way, I will begin
as part of the fulfllment Of this resolution;
will STOP" That is the meaning of the repent.
ance John began and Christ took up. Repent fol
the kingdom of heaven is at hand; that is to saw
I will get over every known wrong that is
inconsistent with this purpose Chat I have
formed; am going to live as q Christian
| man, as o Christian woman; and if there
be that which l know to be fundamentally wrong
I shall carry out my resolution by repenting OF
| turning away from that. And then, in the next
place, resolution to be O Christian applies i'm
mediately; it is not that will be Christian next
year, or by and by, or long time-death, but it is
going on, beginning at once to live, as far as
know how, righteous. Do yoa mean then tc
take the steps that are necessary Are YOU ready